Bachelor of Arts (BA) in History

Gain new perspectives, develop critical thinking skills, improve your research methods and expand your world view through eye-opening historical study. Acquire knowledge that you can apply in a variety of professional settings or build upon in graduate studies.

An Exploration of History through Literature

You're fascinated by history, and for you it's more than just a fleeting interest. You possess an insatiable curiosity, a desire to uncover new stories and lessons, and a voracious appetite for delving into the past. This program allows you to indulge that passion.

The connection between a culture's history and its literature is fundamental to the History bachelor's degree program. You will explore the context of civilizations' cultural drivers and landmark achievements through a diverse range of lenses, including novels, the arts, political and religious works, and social and economic conditions. This multidisciplinary approach provides a depth not found in the typical empirical approach to history, and enables you to become a scholar of the human condition as opposed to simply facts and figures.

Lectures Lead to Conversations

Small class sizes in the undergraduate history major enable discussions and debate. You won't simply be listening and absorbing, you''ll be voicing your opinions and offering insight. Your professors will mentor you, guide your growth as a critical thinker, and inform your career development. Your study will culminate in a senior year research seminar, at the end of which you will produce a comprehensive piece of original scholarship.

A Location Steeped in Historical Significance

Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, one of the United States’ premier cultural centers, you will have access to a wealth of research facilities and opportunities. You can utilize university libraries, public and private local libraries, and historical archives. You will also have access to panels, speeches, and seminars from within a range of institutions and educational forums in and around Boston and Cambridge.

Program of Study

A Myriad of Career Opportunities

Students with a bachelor's degree in History from Lesley have started careers in elite educational settings, sought opportunities abroad, pursued graduate studies, and found success as curators, writers and teachers. Whether you follow in their footsteps, or forge your own path, you will have a firm foundation upon which to build your future.

Alumni Spotlight - Tory Atkins

After graduating from Lesley in 2010 with a degree in history and political science, I began a one year term in AmeriCorps*VISTA with Massachusetts Campus Compact (MACC). As a member of MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA, I spent the year at Salem State University working on building university-community partnerships and bringing service-learning to campus. A one-year term turned into three when I decided to continue with MACC for another two years as an AmeriCorps*VISTA Leader. This new position, based out of the MACC headquarters at Tufts University, gave me the opportunity to learn more about the world of higher education and further fueled my passion for it. As of this fall, I will be beginning as a graduate student at Northeastern University in the College Student Development and Counseling program. I've already started my assistantship at Northeastern's office for Off Campus Student Services and I'm looking forward to learning how to take my amazing undergrad experience at Lesley and help bring it to incoming college students.

Featured Course

CHIST 3888 Africa in Film

Africa in Film will critically examine the history of Africa in film as represented in a wide variety of eras and film genres: “jungle,” empire, and adventure films of the 1930s–1950s; mid-twentieth-century newsreels, documentaries, and ethnographic films; the rise of indigenous African cinema during the 1960s–1980s, as well as twenty-first-century Hollywood “broken Africa” dramas such as Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond. will critically examine the history of Africa in film as represented in a wide variety of eras and film genres: “jungle,” empire, and adventure films of the 1930s–1950s; mid-twentieth-century newsreels, documentaries, and ethnographic films; the rise of indigenous African cinema during the 1960s–1980s, as well as twenty-first-century Hollywood “broken Africa” dramas such as Hotel Rwanda and Blood Diamond.

Contact Us

Dr. Paul Fideler, Professor of History and Humanities - "History at Lesley is not a passive subject. It is active and alive, challenging pre-conceived notions and developing true researchers, inquisitors, and historians who are eager and prepared to take on further scholarship and their careers wholeheartedly."